


The Starship

by abigail89



Category: Star Trek: AOS - Fandom
Genre: Holidays, M/M, Romantic Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-26
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 14:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abigail89/pseuds/abigail89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim tags along with Leonard to a toy store.  And Leonard learns quite a bit about Jim while there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Starship

**Title:** The Starship  
 **Fandom:** Star Trek: AOS  
 **Pairings/Characters:** Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy  
 **Prompt:** [](http://akuchan-47.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://akuchan-47.livejournal.com/)**akuchan_47** requested _ST:AOS Academy era, first Christmas after they met. Jim and/or Bones shopping for a Christmas gift for the other._  
 **Word Count:** 1323  
 **Rating:** pg  
 **Warnings:** there be schmoop, people!  
 **Summary:** Jim tags along with Leonard to a toy store. And Leonard learns quite a bit about Jim while there.

Originally published December 2010 

“Hey! Hey, Bones!”

Leonard McCoy turns around to find his some-time best friend chasing him down. “Why, Jim. Fancy seeing you. I didn't think you knew this time existed on a Saturday morning,” he says. “Especially after the night I imagine you had.”

Jim Kirk catches up to him and knocks shoulders. “What kind of night would that be?”

“Don't tell me Jim Kirk didn't get drunk and laid last night?” Leonard turns the collar of his coat up higher as a gust of December wind whips through the campus of the Academy. “I think I'll have to mark this day down as historic or something.”

“Nah. Contrary to what you might have heard, I don't _have_ to get drunk to get laid,” Jim replies, giving him a big cheesy grin. “Where're you heading?”

“I have some shopping to do, and no, you can't come.”

“Aw, come on, Bones. I'm a great shopper.” Jim bounces along beside him. “What'cha looking for?”

Leonard stops. “Really, Jim. I don't need any help. I'd like to do this on my own.”

Jim skids to a stop. “Oh.” The smile slides right off his handsome face. _Well, fuck._ The kid looks like someone's harshed his squee and stolen his lollipop all in one fell swoop.

“Um...okay,” Jim says, looking around. He scuffs the toe of his chucks against the stoop. “No problem. I guess I'll just leave you to it then.” He turns to head back towards his dorm.

And doesn't _that_ make Leonard feel like Scroogey McScrooge? “Jim, I—oh, fuck it. Come on.”

Just those few words makes Jim light up like a proverbial Christmas tree, the smile is nearly blinding, and it makes Leonard's heart skip a beat or two. If the kid ever discovered the depth of feelings, romantic feelings, warm feelings, fling-him-down-on-the-bed-and-love-him feelings that Leonard harbors for him, well...yeah, it would be epic. So, of course, Leonard covers them up with a scowl and cynicism. But he just doesn't have the heart to _crush_ the kid's spirit.

“So,” Jim says, bouncing on the toes of his feet again, “what're you shopping for?”

“I need to get Joanna one more gift.” They come to the corner and wait for the crosswalk light to turn.

“Didn't you get something for her already?” Jim asks.

“I did, but I saw something in a store down here near the hospital that I think she'll like.”

“She's four, Bones. She'll like anything.”

“And you know this _how_?”

Jim slings an arm around Leonard's shoulders. “I was four once, and I'm closer to remembering it than you are.”

Leonard gives him a good-natured shove. “Infant.”

Jim laughs. “So have you eaten breakfast yet?”

“Had some coffee.”

“Bones! Bonesbonesbones! Aren't you the one who always bitches at me about _breakfast fuels the body for the day ahead_ ,” he says in Leonard's deeper, Southern drawl. “ _Mandy's_ is just up the block. I'm dying for one of her blueberry pancake specials.”

Actually, that does sound pretty good to Leonard, whose stomach has been rebelling against the coffee. “Fine. But we need to make it snappy 'cause I wanna get this in the mail to her today.”

“Mandy's pancakes slide down easy, Bones. We'll be out of there before you know it.”

*~*

They enter the independent toy store near SF General that Leonard's seen. It's not huge, but the selection is diverse and favors toys that aren't gadget-y.

“Jocelyn tells me she's really into puzzles these days,” Leonard says finally, picking two of them up. “I really like these.”

Jim looks at the brightly colored puzzles. “Wow,” he says softly. “Those are really awesome.”

Having selected what he wanted, Leonard goes up to the counter to pay, but as he stands in line, he watches Jim circling around the store. He picks up one toy after another, looks at each one carefully and then puts it back. Jim wanders over to the big display of wooden cars and trucks that run on wooden tracks. These are easily the most simple toys in the entire store, just plain, unpainted carved shapes, but Jim is absolutely fascinated by them. Leonard watches as Jim sinks to his knees and pushes one of the wooden cars along the track, through a tunnel, over an overpass, through a 'forest' of wooden trees. A little boy pushes a truck along the same track and when Jim's car meets the truck, Jim smiles. He and the boy have a lively discussion and finally, Jim gives way, and the boys pushes the truck through.

“Are you ready to make your purchase, sir?” the girl at the register asks. “Sir?”

Leonard looks around. “Oh...oh, yeah. Please.”

He purchases the puzzles, and while he waits for the staff to wrap and box them for him, he watches Jim and the little boy playing with wooden airplanes now. Jim has a starship and the boy has a propeller plane; they're flying them high above the wooden track display. The boy's mother calls to him and he puts the plane down. He waves to Jim, who gives him a smile.

And then, Jim continues to fly the wooden model of the starship around, captivated by the simplicity and the solitude of the moment. He looks up and catches Leonard's eye, and gives him a sheepish grin. He puts the ship down and walks over to him.

“Cool stuff,” Jim says. “I never had anything that cool.”

It strikes Leonard as they slowly wend their way from the store that Jim probably didn't have a lot of things, especially toys, when he was a child. And certainly nothing as nice as those wooden cars and trucks. Jim is absolutely fascinated by every display in the store, and Leonard doesn't have the heart to hurry him along. They linger, and only when Jim realizes what time it is, do they finally leave the toy store.

“Oh, hell, Bones!” Jim exclaims. “The shipping store is closed. Why didn't you say anything?”

“Aw, it's no big deal,” Leonard says, reaching over to pull Jim's coat up onto his shoulder. “It'll get there even if I send it on Monday.”

“I'll pay for it.”

“No, you won't, Jim. It's no big deal,” Leonard says. “Really. Let's get back. I have to work at the clinic in a couple of hours.”

Jim continues to chatter about the toy store on the way back to the Academy, and that's when Leonard decides he needs to make another visit.

*~*

Christmas morning comes, and Leonard is actually looking forward to it. It's his first Christmas away from Georgia, away from home and his baby girl, and it's been a soul-sucking experience. But Jocelyn has promised that he can vid-call Joanna at ten o'clock, so he's up early to be alert when the call can be placed--showered, had coffee, taken a walk to the bakery for a box of some of Jim's favorite pastries.

On the way out, he detours by Jim's dorm and leaves a package outside the door, one wrapped in green paper with reindeer on it and tied with a red ribbon. Just like Santa might have done, had he existed.

It's just a small thing. But when Jim bursts through his door without knocking (“Dammit, JIM! Knock first! I could've been naked!”) and crushes him in a bear hug, it more than makes up for the loneliness that threatens to ruin the day for him.

“God, Bones,” Jim says, with a hitch in his voice and clutching the wooden starship between them. “It's perfect.”

Leonard hugs him back, maybe a little longer than a friend should, and thinks it just might be.


End file.
